it's true. RIP jacko...I am not ashamed at all to say over the years, I was a fan.

It's fun to argue about "bests", where everyone chimes in with their opinion....Who was better Bird or Jordan, who was better Jack or Tiger, who was better Nirvana or Pearl Jam ?........strong arguments on both sides for sure.

Jackson was the BEST entertainer of the last 35 years...folks, that's just not an opinion. You offer the man anything less and you are a fool.

Insane. Not many out there who have three separate decades of (good) music on my iTunes.

Even though he had lived such a bizarre past 10-15 years that it was almost a half-dead existence, this is a sad day.

I can't believe I have seen on some blogs "What about Farah?"....come on now, are you serious? Sure, I had her poster on my wall back in the day, but she was a pretty face and a B list actress......you think her death is bigger news than Jackson? Like him or not, Jackson is the bigger story, ten fold.

I am not one to "idolize" celebrities or sports heroes. I don't worship at their alter, don't want my kids to be like "Mike", etc...etc. What do I want out of my celebrity? I want to be entertained...that's it, nothing more, nothing less. Barkley was onto something when he said "I am not a role model". Sure, I know kids look up to people in the public eye (but maybe they shouldn't), I understand that.......but all I want from my celebrity is to be entertained.

Jackson entertained like no one else....

If you think of Michael Jackson and all you can think of is "pervert", "weirdo", "child molestor".....I'm sorry to say my friend but.........you missed the show.

that was the whole point of the way I worded it....at MJ"s level, it's actually not an opinion.

Are we sure he's really dead? Maybe the transition we witnessed as he turned from black to white and then his nose fell off was all just some crazy metamorphosis in to a higher being....made of light and "Jesus Juice" maybe.

I'm with you Steele

Prince? come ahhhhhnnnnnn

Well the children in his bed must have been a great comfort then.

Dumb-ass, the heading says "MIchael Jackson" not Pete Townshend, so we were all commenting on Michael Jackson and PLEASE watch the Martin Beshir interview again when he admits he sleeps with children in his bed.

Get your facts straight. Townshend (that's the proper spelling BTW) was indeed never convicted of anything of the sort, and all his computers and records were confiscated and scanned by forensic investigators. The result? Nothing related to child pornography - that's right - nothing at all was found. He was completely exonerated of the child pornography charges. Guess you must have missed TMZ that night.

Jacko on the other hand, paid multi-million dollar settlements to make his diddling problems go away. Great musician and entertainer - granted - but his child molestation issues were real.

I'm willing to bet you could dig up some dirt or spill skeletons out of any artist's closet. Michael was too high profile to get away with his pedophilia, whether or not it was true. (I'm leaning towards "Yes, he was a diddler", by the way...)

My point is that an artist's personal perversions, thought modalities, actions, inactions, beliefs, or any other personal aspect of their life does not negate the value of their art, nor does it remove their influence on the collective consciousness of pop culture.

In other words, jumping towards child molestation accusations just because you don't like "Thriller", or any other album by MJ is a knee-jerk, immature reaction and furthermore does not even address the issue at hand. Was Michael Jackson the most influential performer of the last 35 years? Was he the most well known person on the planet during his hey day?

Do the math, folks...

Yes, Duncan. Prince.

Well then I'm mystified.

Who was a more influential entertainer during that time frame (take into account record sales, media obsession, and most of all influence on popular music) than Michael?

And I really can't think of anyone who was better known than he was at the height of his popularity. Or even during the trials.

I'll stand behind Voltaire when it comes to your opinion, but when we're talking facts...

I'm with Louie on this one. Most popular, I would be fine with that. I have a friend who is traveling in Hanoi right now, and said that the city has been filled with tributes to him since he has died. In Hanoi--WTF? But I'm guessing that's true in a lot of places that get imported American culture

Most influential I am not sure about.

Who are the great bands of today that would cite Michael Jackson as a major influence on their music? Will any of those bands be remembered in fifty years? Twenty?

I'm also with Louie in my opinion of him. Never owned a recording by him, never wanted to, and have no desire to get one now. Just not my kind of thing.

Good points all around. And yes, this "most influential" argument does kinda suck.

I did enjoy a lot of his music, though, and he will be missed...

What I mean to say is that there are plenty of devoted fans that have stuck with him through all the creepiness and freakdom. I know they'll miss him, at least.

And I will too, for that matter, because just days before he died I was expressing to my girlfriend how cool it would be if he could release a new album that would match "Bad" or "Dangerous", and maybe turn his image around. I wanted to see him in the spotlight, (hopefully not on fire), and in a favorable way... then he bit the big one.

Anyways, I make it a point to not get caught up with celebrity deaths, but the King of Pop was someone I listened to when I was younger, a guilty pleasure through all of my rock and roll escapades, and unabashedly one of my favorite pop singers now... so if no one else on this board will, I'll tip my hat to Jacko, and wish him luck in the after life. (He'll probably need it.)

I will close with a joke that my ex-roommate told me.

"Farrah Fawcett dies, and St. Peter grants her one wish, before she enters heaven. She says that she just wants all of the children in the world to be safe from harm, and BAM! Michael Jackson dies."

Poor taste, I know, but that's usually my favorite kind of joke...

Meh. Same dance steps and songs for 30 years. Get some new fucking material.........................whoops, too late.

Just a reminder that "the music industry/pop culture" often (usually) has nothing to do with good music.

Prince vs MJ is a lot like Beatles vs Stones, no one ever wins that argument... The world will never agree.

This world needs more "musicians" that dance, only sing in studios, lipsynch*, and don't play any instruments. They should probably enjoy being nude, "augmented", and radically promiscuous on "reality" tv shows.

*I spelled lip-sync wrong and the Firefox spell check for "lipsynch" gave me "lipstick, synchrony, and lynching". I think that says something...

I think you could say that about many artists...cough..McCartney...cough, cough...Townshend...cough.
If those two aren't milking it- then who the fuck is.

Looking at your avatar.. you? :-)

As alreaday been stated the heading for this thread is Michael Jackson. Not Pete Townshend, not Paul McCartney. If you want to make dumb arguments like that why don't you add Frank Sinatra during his whole fucking career??

See the thing you'll never understand is artists like Macca and Townshend AT LEAST TRIED different things. Some were successful, some were not (and the new Fireman LP is GREAT!), Michael Jackson was really a one trick pony. Dance moves and dance tracks.

Thanks for proving that the public are a bunch of idiots.